Editing Wessex (section)

=== Unification of England; Earldom of Wessex ===

[[File:Eroberung des Danelags.jpg|500px|thumb|right|Unification of England and Defeat of the Danelaw in the 10th century under Wessex.]]
After the invasions of the 890s, Wessex and English [[Mercia]] continued to be attacked by the Danish settlers in England, and by small Danish raiding forces from overseas, but these incursions were usually defeated, while there were no further major invasions from the continent. The balance of power tipped steadily in favour of the English. In 911 Ealdorman [[Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians|Æthelred]] died, leaving his widow, Alfred's daughter [[Æthelflæd]], in charge of Mercia. Alfred's son and successor [[Edward the Elder]] then annexed London, [[Oxford]] and the surrounding area, probably including [[Middlesex]], [[Hertfordshire]], [[Buckinghamshire]] and [[Oxfordshire]], from Mercia to Wessex. Between 913 and 918 a series of English offensives overwhelmed the Danes of Mercia and East Anglia, bringing all of England south of the [[Humber]] under Edward's power. In 918 Æthelflæd died and Edward took over direct control of Mercia, extinguishing what remained of its independence and ensuring that henceforth there would be only one [[Kingdom of the English]]. In 927 Edward's successor [[Æthelstan]] conquered [[Northumbria]], bringing the whole of England under one ruler for the first time. The Kingdom of Wessex had thus been transformed into the [[Kingdom of England]].

Æthelstan never married, and when he died in 939 he was succeeded by his half-brother [[Edmund I|Edmund]]. Edmund's sons were young children when he died in 946, so he was succeeded by his full brother [[Eadred]]. Edmund and Eadred both lost control of Northumbria at the beginning of their reigns but had regained it by their deaths. Northumbria's acceptance of West Saxon rule in 954 meant the final unification of the kingdom of England. When Eadred died in 955, he was succeeded by Edmund's elder son Eadred, whose incompetent rule may have led to the division of England between Wessex under Eadred and Mercia and Northumbria under his younger brother [[Edgar, King of England|Edgar]] in 957, although some historians argue that it was intended from the start that the kingdom would be divided when Edgar came of age, which occurred in 957. Eadwig died in 959 and Edgar became king of the whole of England.

After the conquest of England by the Danish king [[Cnut]] in 1016, he established earldoms based on the former kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia, but initially administered Wessex personally. Within a few years, however, he had created an earldom of Wessex, encompassing all of England south of the Thames, for his English henchman [[Godwin, Earl of Wessex]]. For almost fifty years the vastly wealthy holders of this earldom, first Godwin and then his son [[Harold Godwinson]], were the most powerful men in English politics after the king. Finally, on the death of [[Edward the Confessor]] in 1066, Harold became king, reuniting the earldom of Wessex with the crown. No new earl was appointed before the ensuing [[Norman Conquest of England]], and as the Norman kings soon did away with the great earldoms of the late Anglo-Saxon period, 1066 marks the extinction of Wessex as a political unit.